Skating tips

The race photos were taken from my video of the paintball biathlon. As this was the first time skating for several people there is no surprise that our technique was rough. Here are some general things that we can learn though:

1. As you spend more time skating, and your balance improves the base of your triangle will get smaller and smaller. ( bottom pictures)

2. The size and angle of your skating wedge (or V) depends on your technique and the terrain. In general on flat, well groomed terrain, with good technique your feet will come quite close together giving you a very small base to your triangle. The steeper the terrain, more poorly groomed, or the rougher your technique the wider will be your base.

3. What is harder to notice is that in the top two pictures all the racers have put the skating ski down on the snow on its edge. You can tell, because the ankle is rolled inward. However, the Swiss team skier is getting ready to put his skating ski down absolutely flat ... thus giving him more glide.